In the work of Peter Maxwell Davies, the traditions of the British pastoralists and of Sibelius (almost a British composer for the critical role that country played in putting his music into the canon) potentially seem reconciled to modernist trends. Whether you'll find the Symphony No. 3 a good example of that reconciliation is probably a matter of taste, but the reappearance of this recording will be welcome for Maxwell Davies fans. The album was originally issued in 1994 on the small Collins Classics label; Naxos ...
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In the work of Peter Maxwell Davies, the traditions of the British pastoralists and of Sibelius (almost a British composer for the critical role that country played in putting his music into the canon) potentially seem reconciled to modernist trends. Whether you'll find the Symphony No. 3 a good example of that reconciliation is probably a matter of taste, but the reappearance of this recording will be welcome for Maxwell Davies fans. The album was originally issued in 1994 on the small Collins Classics label; Naxos reissued it in 2012. The Symphony No. 3 itself was written in 1984 and premiered by another conductor; the composer's decision to record it again, leading the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, was perhaps born of a decision to set the record straight, so to speak. The work's outer slow movements are massive and often lugubrious. They have long-range harmonic schemes, combined with a set of proportions supposedly derived from Renaissance architecture (good luck hearing these, and note that some of...
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